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Unit of Study BHS20008 - Quantitative Methods in Psychology (2014)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Enrolment information

    Students should have basic mathematical skills equivalent to Year 10 Maths. Students should have basic computer literacy and familiarity with a spreadsheet program, such as Excel.

Unit description

Equips students with a range of quantitative data analytic techniques utilised in psychological research. Provides methods for describing, summarising, and illustrating the results of experiments. The concept of a correlation coefficient and simple regression are described, and illustrated through analysis of data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). A basic understanding of the concepts underlying hypothesis testing, with emphasis upon the central limit theorem, and the use of t-tests for hypotheses about differences between groups and conditions is presented.

Unit content

Topic 1: Basic Concepts 
Topic 2: Describing and Exploring data 
Topic 3: The Normal Distribution 
Topic 4: Sampling Distribution and Hypothesis Testing 
Topic 5: Basic Concepts of Probability 
Topic 6: Hypothesis tests Applied to means 
Topic 7: Power 
Topic 8: Correlation and Regression

Availabilities

Location Domestic International
Coffs Harbour Session 1 Session 1
Online Session 1,  3 N/A

Learning outcomes and graduate attributes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

GA1: Intellectual rigour, GA2: Creativity, GA3: Ethical practice, GA4: Knowledge of a discipline, GA5: Lifelong learning, GA6: Communication and social skills, GA7: Cultural competence
Learning outcome count Learning outcome description GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 correctly interpret the description of results to be found in simple (correlational and 2-group) research publications
2 generate a basic description of simple data sets that would be suitable for APA-style publication
3 conduct appropriate quantitative analyses on simple data sets using SPSS
4 interpret the output of SPSS in an accurate and critical manner
5 communicate the results of an analysis in an effective manner adhering to APA standards

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. correctly interpret the description of results to be found in simple (correlational and 2-group) research publications
    • GA4:
  2. generate a basic description of simple data sets that would be suitable for APA-style publication
    • GA5:
  3. conduct appropriate quantitative analyses on simple data sets using SPSS
    • GA4:
  4. interpret the output of SPSS in an accurate and critical manner
    • GA4:
  5. communicate the results of an analysis in an effective manner adhering to APA standards
    • GA6:

Prescribed learning resources

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.

Prescribed Texts
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Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods.